World Briefing | Asia: China: Optimism On Pollution

By JIM YARDLEY

Published: June 6, 2007

China has reached a ''turning point'' in reversing its runaway pollution problems and expects to see reductions in air and water pollution in the coming months, according to Zhang Lijun, a top official with the State Environmental Protection Administration. Mr. Zhang, left, used a news conference to predict that emissions of sulfur dioxide in the air and levels of water pollution measured by a process known as chemical oxygen demand would fall this year. Cutting those areas of pollution are the main indicators in China's nationwide plan for a 10 percent reduction in pollution by 2010. Last year, China failed to meet its goal of two percent reductions in each category and instead registered small increases. But Mr. Zhang said improvements had become evident after government programs to install pollution technology on coal-fired power plants, as well as the installation of new wastewater treatment equipment. He acknowledged that other pollutants, including ammonia, continued to rise. And greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide are increasing rapidly. JIM YARDLEY